Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Anthropology |
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Folklore |
Literature and Language Arts
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Fiction |
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World |
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Time Required |
| Lesson 1: One class period
Lesson 2: One class period
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Skills |
| Analyzing written and oral texts for plot, theme, and characterization
Working collaboratively
Comparing and contrasting
Gathering, classifying, and interpreting written and oral information
Making inferences and drawing conclusions
Observing and describing
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Author(s) |
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Lisa Bernstein
NEH
Washington, DC
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Date Posted |
| 4/17/2002 |
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Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales
"Through these stories we visit with our ancestors as we receive and,
in turn, pass on their wisdom through the millennia."
--(from IAHBING,
"The Talking Drum") IntroductionFables
and trickster tales are short narratives that use animal characters with human
features to convey folk wisdom and to help us understand human nature and human
behavior. These stories were originally passed down through oral tradition and
were eventually written down. The legendary figure Aesop was reported to have
orally passed on his animal fables, which have been linked to earlier beast tales
from India and were later written down by the Greeks and Romans. Ananse trickster
tales derive from the Asante people of Ghana and were brought by African slaves
to the Caribbean and parts of the U.S. These tales developed into Brer Rabbit
stories and were written down in the 19th century in the American South.
In this unit, students will become familiar with fables
and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and will see how stories
change when transferred orally between generations and cultures. They will learn
how both types of folktales employ various animals in different ways to portray
human strengths and weaknesses and to pass down wisdom from one generation to
the next. Use the following lessons to introduce students to world folklore and
to explore how folktales convey the perspectives of different world cultures. This
unit is related to the lesson Fables
and Trickster Tales Around the World, which provides the same background information
for the teacher with different activities appropriate for students in grades 3-5.
Please note that different versions of spellings of “Ananse” and “Anansi,” and
of “Asante,” “Ashante,” and “Ashanti” exist. Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students will
be able to: - Identify
the definition and understand elements of fables and trickster stories
- Recognize
Aesop's fables and Ananse spider stories
- Identify
the specific narrative and thematic patterns that occur in fables and trickster
tales across cultures
- Compare
and contrast themes of fables and trickster tales from different cultures
- Differentiate
between the cautionary lessons and morals of fables and the celebration of the
wiles and wit of the underdog in trickster stories.
Guiding
Questions:What is a fable, and how are fables different from other types
of stories? What is a trickster tale, and how is it different from other types
of tales and from fables? What are the elements common to fables and trickster
tales? Where does each of these types of stories come from? How have fables and
trickster tales been passed down through time and around the world? What kinds
of wisdom about human nature and human behavior do we learn from fables, and how
is this wisdom relevant today? Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
each lesson in this unit and select archival materials you'd like to use in class.
If possible, bookmark these materials, along with other useful websites; download
and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student
viewing.
- For the cultural context
of original Ananse stories, see the Asante
Information page in Peoples
Resources at Art and Life in Africa
Online.
- Review the "Preface"
on the Aesop's Fables
website, linked through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet
Public Library. The "Preface" provides information on the history of Aesop's
fables and on the definition of fables in general. The Aesop's Fables website
notes: "It has been said that Aesop only created but a few of the Fables, but
he is still regarded as the greatest story teller of all time, and thus fables
are most always attributed to him" (from Aesop's
Fables Online Collection, Detailed Information).
Suggested Activities
Telling Stories - Writing Stories
Fables and Tales from Different Cultures Extending
the Lesson
Lesson 1 Telling Stories - Writing Stories
Read to the class the Ashanti fable from West Africa, "Anansi
Tries to Steal All the Wisdom in the World." Go
over the following vocabulary from the story: Wise, clever, wisdom, outwit, gourd,
chuckle, suitable, journey, creature, progress, proceed. Point
out the last line of the story as folk wisdom, a typical ending feature of Ananse
stories: "And this is how wisdom came to the world." Have
students identify characteristics of this story and use this list of elements
to collaboratively devise a definition of a fable or trickster tale as a short
narrative that uses animal characters with human features to convey some universal
truth about human nature and human behavior and to pass down wisdom from earlier
generations in ways that can be used for present-day situations. Point out to
students that, while fables tend to end in moral or cautionary lessons, trickster
tales often celebrate values or actions that are disapproved of by society but
that may be necessary for the survival and success of the small and weak; together,
fables and trickster stories allow us to see the complexities of the human character.
Ask students what they think about the Spider character in the story, whether
they like him and his actions, and why? Why is Spider called a "trickster"?
Use the information from Preparing the Lesson to discuss
with students the notion of "the talking drum," a story that is passed orally
through generations and cultures, and that changes as it moves from person to
person and from place to place. Discuss with students the differences between
telling and writing stories, and ask them what the advantages and disadvantages
are of the oral and written forms. To illustrate
to students how stories change when passed down orally, have them play the Operator
game: Have students sit in a circle and tell one student a secret message. The
students then repeat the message by whispering it in another student's ear. Ask
the last student hearing the message to say it out loud, and see how it has changed
from the original message. After playing the Operator
game, you can ask students to retell the Ananse tale and note how the story has
changed in the retelling, or have them write or draw the story to see how it becomes
fixed after being committed to paper.
Lesson 2 Fables and Tales from Different Cultures
The following lesson has two versions at differing levels, one for Kindergarten
and one for first and second grades. For both levels, go over the following vocabulary
words and folktale elements with students. Then read to students or have them
read the following stories, and discuss how these words are elements in the fable
and trickster tale. Vocabulary
Words:
Folktale Fable Trickster
Story Oral Tradition Moral Folk Wisdom Elements
of Folktales:
Folktales… … are very old
stories … have special beginnings (such as "Once upon a time…" or "There once
was…") and endings … often repeat words or sentences …have characters,
settings, problems, and solutions Kindergarten
Activity:
The following are two sets of
one fable and one trickster story that have related themes and lessons. You can
pick one set of stories and complete the activity as a class, or divide the class
into two groups and have each group work on one set of stories. The
first set of stories involves cases where the less powerful of two animals who
are natural enemies frees the more powerful animal. The divergent responses of
the animals freed lead to different lessons. Using the Venn Diagram below, have
students identify and then compare and contrast the characters, problem and solution,
and moral of these two stories. Set
A:
Both from Aesop's
Fables, Online Collection, located through the EDSITEment-reviewed website
Internet Public Library: "The
Lion and the Mouse" (Aesop) (another
similar version) “Mr. Buffu and the Snake” (Ananse) Located on
the Caribbean
Folktales page (Scroll down to story) Set B:
Anansi
and the Turtle , from KidSpace,
available through the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet
Public Library. The
Fox and the Crane, from Aesop's
Fables, Online Collection, located through the EDSITEment-reviewed website
Internet Public Library. For
both sets of stories, ask students to compare the animals and their behavior in
the fable and the trickster tale. Why do the types of animals change or not from
one culture's fable to the next? How does the behavior change according to the
type of animal? What types of behaviors lead to what types of endings in these
stories? Have students fill in an online version
of the following Venn Diagram for their set of stories: They
must choose whether the following elements belong to one or the other story or
are shared by both, depending on whether they are the same or different in the
two stories: Characters, Setting, Problem, Solution, Moral/Lesson. Ask
students to compare the characters, setting, plot, and lessons of these stories.
Which characters did they like best? Which did they like least? Which story had
the best ending? The best moral? To see how fables teach universal lessons, ask
students to think of a real-life situation that applies to one of the stories. 1st
and 2nd Grade Activity: The following stories
involve cases where the less powerful of two animals (including one human) who
are natural enemies frees the more powerful animal. The divergent responses of
the animals freed lead to different lessons about human behavior and values. Using
the chart below, have students identify the fable elements, characters, problem
and solution, and moral of these stories. "The
Lion and the Mouse" (Aesop) (another
similar version) “Mr. Buffu and the Snake” (Ananse) Located on
the Caribbean
Folktales page (Scroll down to story) "The Ungrateful Tiger" (Korean) "The
Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal" (India)
Have
students fill out an online or printed-out version of the Story Structure Chart:
Ask
students to compare the characters, plot, and lessons of these stories. Which
characters did they like best? Which did they like least? Which story had the
best ending and why? Have students compare the animals and their behavior in each
story: Why do the types of animals change or not from one culture's fable to the
next? How does the behavior change according to the type of animal? What types
of behaviors lead to what types of endings in these stories? To see how fables
teach universal lessons about human nature and behavior, ask students to think
of a real-life situation that applies to one of the stories. Extending
the Lesson - The American stories referred
to as Brer Rabbit stories are actually Ananse Stories (the wise trickster spider)
that were brought to the United States and the Caribbean by African-American slaves.
To develop a history of this type of trickster tale, have students trace the connections
between the two sets of stories and locate the places in Africa and the U.S. and
Caribbean where these stories are found. This topic also brings up questions about
the roles and identities of the people who created the stories versus those who
eventually wrote them down - Who is telling the story? Whose story is it? What
is the relationship of the writer towards his or her characters?
- The EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Studies at the University of Virginia has created one of its Ongoing
Hypertext Projects on Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle
Remus and His Friends (1892). The website, Melissa Murray and Dominic
Perella on Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle
Remus. [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/remus.html], provides several
Uncle Remus stories from Harris' book, accompanied by the editors' own social
and historical commentary; background and contextual information on the Uncle
Remus stories and on Harris, including four contemporary reviews of the Uncle
Remus collections; a biography of Joel Chandler Harris; and some other essays
and tales written by Harris that indicate Harris' attitude towards race relations.
- For resources on African folktales, see the Bibliography for African Storytelling, available on K-12 Educational Resources, located on the K-12 Electronic Guide for African Resources on the Internet, at the EDSITEment-reviewed website African Studies WWW.
- From Remus
to Rap: A History in Theory and Practice of the African-American Storytelling
Tradition by Joshua Perlstein,
traces the storytelling tradition in African-American culture:
- "Most of the animal tales found their roots in
African mythology. The characters of Rabbit, Bear, and Fox all have their African
counterparts. It is the character of Rabbit that most often represents the slaves'
own position. Rabbit is essentially a trickster, much like Anansi the spider in
African mythology. Rabbit is constantly using his brains to overcome the obstacles
placed in his way by the more overpowering animals. By replacing the slaves' persona
with this animal, the teller empowered the listener by suggesting that there were
ways to overcome the biggest obstacles in their lives as well. In most of these
stories the main characters are neither good nor evil. It is an interesting facet
of black American storytelling that the stories were as complex morally as the
conditions that the storytellers found themselves living in. Often, the tricks
that were attempted by Rabbit failed. By creating this imperfect hero, the storyteller
seems to be telling the listener not to get too overconfident about the prospects
for change. It is interesting to compare this mythology with something like the
Odyssey, in which the hero always seems to conquer impossible odds. The difference
may lie in the cultures that supported these myths: one, the Greeks, was the dominant
culture of its time; the other, the slaves, were the repressed culture of their
time. By this we can see how much mythology reflects the present as much as the
past."
- Explain
the differences between myths, legends, fairy tales, and fables. Give some examples
of each type of story and let students sort them by category, or ask students
to research their own examples of each of these narrative forms. The
Preface on the Aesop's
Fables website, linked through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet
Public Library, defines and differentiates the tale, the parable, and the
fable:
- "The tale, the Parable, and
the Fable are all common and popular modes of conveying instruction. Each is distinguished
by its own special characteristics. The Tale consists simply in the narration
of a story either founded on facts, or created solely by the imagination, and
not necessarily associated with the teaching of any moral lesson. The Parable
is the designed use of language purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret
meaning other than that contained in the words themselves; and which may or may
not bear a special reference to the hearer, or reader. The Fable partly agrees
with, and partly differs from both of these. It will contain, like the Tale, a
short but real narrative; it will seek, like the Parable, to convey a hidden meaning,
and that not so much by the use of language, as by the skillful introduction of
fictitious characters; and yet unlike either Tale or Parable, it will ever keep
in view, as its high prerogative, and inseparable attribute, the great purpose
of instruction, and will necessarily seek to inculcate some moral maxim, social
duty, or political truth."
- In
Folktales: What Are They?, Stacy Carney defines the folktale and provides a list of distinctive elements
as well as a categorization of different types of folktale.
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